Sweeper said:
The research is done by Universities around the world. Thats where the best scientists are and the taxpayer pays for this research. The drug companies pick the patent up for a song and then the marketing and manufacturing is done by drug companies.
The profit margins of a drug company are greater then that of an oil company. And theres a lot of risk in oil too... just look at Iraq!
Pure greed really, and a distinct lack of ethics.
The pharamceutical companies do co-sponsor university studies, however they do also have significant development systems, processes and structures of their own for this kind of research.
I am very much aware of the profit margins of this industry, having been employed in it for some time, and while the dollars look good on paper, the cost of distribution, of keeping the product in date (considering a lot of these items have very short shelf lives) and the incredibly high cost of building HACCP/GMP certified manufacturing facilities with all the appropriate control systems etc etc means that the costs are not as low as you may consider them to be.
Oil companies do make money, but which end of the oil market are you talking about? The drillers? The transporters? The oil traders? The refiners? The distributors? The retail outlets?
There is money in oil... but again, an incredibly capital intensive process for the drilling and exploration, for the transport, for the refining operation, and again for the distribution costs of servicing every little fuel stop in the country.
There is always the cute story around that the only money in oil comes from the selling the barrels....
